Nordlys in Northern Tonga
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Fri 18 Jun 2004 02:06
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FURTHER TONGAN
EXPERIENCES
Niuatoputapu
18th June 2004
Well our visit to the Kingdom of Tonga has
continued to be dominated by the weather, the quite atrocious weather. Our
time in the Vavau Group consisted of a few days of reasonable weather and many
of endless wind and rain. We did manage to deliver a load of books we
had brought for a cruising friend we met in New Zealand to a school on one
of the outer islands. We also managed five dives which proved very
enjoyable. When one is underwater it maters not whether it is raining on
the surface! However Annette, who on most occasions circled above in
Nordlys, had much more of a smile on her face when she had not had forty minutes
of downpour to endure in our absence. We never managed a successful BBQ on
our new machine given to us by Christabel. Similarly the two expensive
solar panels I had bought in New Zealand with the proceeds of a sold unwanted
sail have never really had a chance to work. We celebrated Claire's
birthday with an excellent lunch at one of Neiafu's best restaurants with a
Swiss chef owner. The view out over the harbour was however obscured by
rain. In Denmark one is supposed to have been very bad if it rains on ones
birthday. If this is true then Claire must have been evil for the past
year. This does prove that not all Danish sayings are
true!
Mentioning the Swiss Chef, who is married to a
local girl, brings me on to the very, to us, strange family system in these
islands. In Tonga the basic social unit is the extended family which in a
sense serves as the welfare system. Within families, all wealth,
belongings, work, problems and even shame are shared and excessive accumulation
of wealth and personal belongings is considered to be out of line. One
problem this has caused is much grief for Jomo Lomo the New Zealand rugby star
who is having a lot of pressure put on him by distant Tongan relatives to share
his, to them huge, wealth. So fundamental is the concept of this extended
family that apparently in Tongan there are no separate words for
brother/sister or cousin. Aunts and uncles are referred to as parents and
all us oldies are known as 'grandparents'. The notion of childless
families and orphaned children are unknown. Children get shifted around
and in the end do not have one home but usually several. This we have
learnt from a mixture of the Lonely Planet, the Swiss gentleman referred to
earlier and conversations with children who tell you one person is their
brother/father/sister one day and then a whole lot of different people the
next. It is this latter behaviour which is the only real way we come
across this social phenomenon.
Our sail up the 170nm to Niuatoputapu is
best forgotten. We left early one morning and arrived early the
next. 185nm logged due to a contrary current in 25 hours. Jago and
Claire were reduced to their bunks for most of this as Nordlys ploughed on with
the wind on the beam and large confused seas. A double reefed
mainsail and many rolls in the genoa was the order of the day. We are
every conscious that we have never been able to give our young guests the
pleasure of sailing over a lovely placid ocean swell with the myriad of stars
that make up the southern night sky shining overhead. The wake a creamy
foam of phosphorescence. We have one more sail left up to Samoa and
although I will not go until conditions ease from the 25 gusting 30 that we have
in this anchorage the passage is unlikely to be easy.
I will get all the bad news over with by saying
that last year in the Tuamotus we met up with a Danish retired Vet in his boat
Tico Tico. We saw him again in the Haapai and Vavau where he, his partner
and a young Danish student sailing with them joined us for Dinner. On
their passage to Fiji they 'disappeared'. This morning a New Zealand Orion
aircraft found his Epirb radio beacon but no sign of the boat.
We understand that this beacon was found near a reef in the Eastern Loa group of
Fijian islands. Fingers are crossed but there is a sombre mood amongst the
cruising community on the airwaves. For our youngsters who spent a whole
evening chatting to the Danish student is hard to take in.
Enough. As I write this Jago and Claire are
off to a nearby Motu, small uninhabited island, with snorkelling gear and
plans to explore. The sun is shining more often than not and the wind is
down a bit. Last night we had ten sitting round our cabin table and the
talk was fast, interesting and amusing. Especially as the contents of the
rum bottle went down.
 Goods awaiting the ferry from Haafeva Island to
Nukualofa
Nordlys in the background
(we comforted ourselves by saying that the pig was a breeding
sow
and not for market. She was in very good
condition)
 So much rain off Neiafu town Vavau group that the brown water
run off
can be seen. Note the 'useless' solar panel in the bottom
right hand.
While putting the above
together Jago has come on the radio saying that he has been offered fish by a
local and should he accept? Who knows the BBQ may yet be used tonight but
I am not going to try and light it under and umbrella which I tried a few nights
ago!
Happy times
everyone
David, Annette, Jago and
Claire
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